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This is inspired by the following question:

The answers there state that, assuming we are on a grid, if you have 35 speed and you are prone it takes 15 movement to stand up which leaves you with 20 movement leftover. Similarly then, if your speed was 15 it would take 5 movement to stand and you would have 10 movement left over. But what about when your speed is 5; does it require 0 movement and so you have 5 movement leftover? The section on being prone states:

[...] You can't stand up if you don't have enough movement left or if your speed is 0.

Here our speed is not 0 and we do have enough movement left (0 movement); it seems to me that this is technically valid then. I'm just wondering if there's a rule I've missed somewhere or if it is in fact possible for a creature to stand from prone while having 0 movement available, given that their speed is 5?

In other words, following the logic of those answers, it should take 0 movement to stand up if your speed is 5. Is this the case?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ So this question is a bit confusing. Is question about standing when your remaining movement is 0, in which case the rules are very clear, or is it about standing when your maximum movement is only 5'? \$\endgroup\$
    – RevanantBacon
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 15:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ @revenant I state it plainly. Standing when your speed is 5 and your remaining movement is 0. The question I linked to has an answer where it seems that this is possible. \$\endgroup\$
    – Exempt-Medic
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 15:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ah, so basically, your question is "If it costs me 0 movement to stand up, can I stand up when I have 0 movement remaining?" \$\endgroup\$
    – RevanantBacon
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 15:33
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    \$\begingroup\$ @RevenantBacon The real issue here is, when playing on a grid, whether movement is accounted for as a whole number of feet or a whole number of squares. If your speed is 5 feet, the cost to stand up from prone is 2 feet. If your speed is 1 square, the cost is 0 squares. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mark Wells
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 15:55

2 Answers 2

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No

I have my own issues with the answers on the linked question, and have posted an opposing answer there, but I will rehash the point here.

The rules for movement on a grid state (PHB, p.192)

Rather than moving foot by foot, move square by square on the grid. This means you use your speed in 5-foot segments.

This does not say all movement distance (or required expenditure) is calculated in 5 feet increments, it only describes how the player expends their movement. Therefore, the cost of standing up while prone is still 2.5 feet of movement for this character. (Probably rounded down to 2).

If the player has 0 movement remaining, they do not have enough movement (2 feet) and therefore cannot stand up while prone.

TL;DR the premise of this question was based on (what I believe to be) faulty assumptions made within the answers of the parent question.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I think additional support for this answer is the section under playing on a grid that states Entering a Square. To enter a square, you must have at least 1 square of movement left. This indicates that although movement happens in squares, movement is still tracked foot by foot \$\endgroup\$
    – lucasvw
    Commented Apr 12, 2020 at 23:56
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    \$\begingroup\$ basically what it means is that it is possible to have less than 1 square of movement left (say 3ft left when you need 5 ft to move to another square) \$\endgroup\$
    – lucasvw
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 2:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ @lucas Be aware that we have a policy against using code markup for anything that is not code such as quotes in comments. I've been alerted to this in the past because I've done it myself so I thought I'd pass along the friendly advice :-) \$\endgroup\$
    – Rykara
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 6:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ @lucasvw That's a possible interpretation, but "at least 1" might as well just mean "not 0". To me, the variant rules block as a whole reads like a way to replace measuring movement in feet with measuring it in squares. Which part of it suggest to you that one is supposed to use a hybrid? \$\endgroup\$
    – Mars Plastic
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 11:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ @lucas While I ultimately agree with a reading that supports "not all movement is squares", and could certainly make a case for it, I think it would end up lengthening this answer unnecessarily. \$\endgroup\$
    – Carcosa
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 16:12
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No, without any movement left you can not stand up.

From the PHB pp. 190-191, important bit emphasized:

Standing up takes more effort; doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feet of movement to stand up. You can’t stand up if you don’t have enough movement left or if your speed is 0.

If your remaining movement is zero, you can not stand up.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I've had to edit this repeatedly, and it's occurred to me that the problem isn't the answer. If you're looking for an answer to a different question please ask that question instead, but for the purposes of this question your answer is covered already by the rules for standing up in the manual. Your order of operations for rounding doesn't supersede the bolded text above that states you can not stand up if you don't have enough movement left, and zero movement is always less than half. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lino Frank Ciaralli
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 0:53
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    \$\begingroup\$ I have to get semantic on this. There are two clauses in the ruling you quote. 1) Not enough movement left: For this we must know how much movement is required to stand, which is the root of OP's question. 2) If your speed is 0: If your remaining movement is 0, that does no mean you speed is 0. If I am a standard human and I walk 30 feet, I have 0 movement remaining - but my speed is still 30 feet per round. Clause two is not tripped by having no movement left over. Clause 1 is the one in question here. All that said, I agree with the conclusion, just not the reasoning. \$\endgroup\$
    – Izzy
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 13:25
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Izzy - I had answered this for Medix breaking down the differencing between movement and speed, and he said that wasn't what he was looking for so I removed all of it. Plainly put, it costs movement to stand, there's no rule in the game for dividing to the nearest 5 feet in order to accomodate movement. The rule for decimal point values is to round down. So even with speed of 5, it costs 2.5 feet of movement. After you round down it still costs 2 feet to stand minimum. But since the character has 0 movement to spend, they can't move anyways. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lino Frank Ciaralli
    Commented Apr 14, 2020 at 5:30

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